Susane Colasanti is the bestselling author of When It Happens, Take Me There, Waiting for You, Something Like Fate, So Much Closer, and Keep Holding On. Before becoming a full-time author, Susane was a high school science teacher for ten years. Her seventh teen novel will be released in May 2013.

Madeleine George writes books and plays. Her two novels, Looks and The Difference Between You and Me, are published by Viking Children's Books. Her plays, including The Zero Hour, Precious Little, and Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, have been developed and produced at theaters across the country. She's a founding member of the Obie-winning playwrights' collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.), and a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

Paul Griffin started working with at-risk, incarcerated and special needs teens in 1989, with a concentration in conflict resolution workshops aimed at stemming the spread of gang and in-home violence, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and—yes—bullying among young adults. These days his workshops focus on helping young men and women tell their life stories as they reach out to counselors, judges, admissions officers and potential employers. Twenty years to the day after Paul graduated Dartmouth, Penguin/Dial released his “first” novel Ten Mile River, followed by The Orange Houses, Stay With Me and Burning Blue.

Frieda Wishinsky is the international award-winning author of over sixty books. She writes in a variety of genres including picture books, non-fiction, chapter books and novels. She's written about bullying in a number of books including the acclaimed You're Mean Lily Jean(Albert Whitman). Frieda loves speaking at schools, libraries and conferences.